The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is a 1000 tonne heavy water Cerenkov detector built to observe neutrinos from the sun and from supernovae. It is located deep underground to reduce the cosmic background radiation to negligible levels. The observatory is nearing completion and will commence full data taking early in 1999. Some aspects of its design and construction, and some of the critical components necessary for its successful operation, are described. The current status of the observatory is reviewed, and two types of background events observed in its preliminary phase of operation are presented